im sure this is a noob question but when it says itunes match will replace the music library on this device, does it erase the 2,000 songs i already have on my phone and i have to upload them back in from the cloud?

thanks for your help

I tried it on my iPod (Settings, Music, Turn iTunes Match On) and every song in my library started to fade, and then the Cloud icon appeared, allowing me to download the songs I wanted.. Then I turned off iTunes Match and I had 0 playlists, and only a few songs left on my iPod. I had to sync with iTunes to get all of my songs back.

Interesting. That's music that shouldn't really cause any problems. I've got a few 100 songs coming from LPs which I thought might not work, but ripped from CD should be no problem. Someone posted that bitrate below 128 KBit/sec. tends to be not eligible, and just converting them to AAC worked.

Im pretty sure that the bitrate is above 128, but I'll give it a try anyways, thanks for your help

...how to determine the iCloud status of a particular song, is solved by right-clicking the column bar at the top of the iTunes window (or pressing Command-J) and making sure "iCloud Status" is selected.

Yay for usability. Does Command-J also make the status glow? Damn iTunes has become a bloated dumping ground.

All I want to know is if I can stream the music to my 4S without downloading it. I got the small 16Gig phone because I thought I wouldn't have to store any of my music in the device. If they make you download the songs you stream, it kinda defeats the purpose of storing music on the cloud.

All I want to know is if I can stream the music to my 4S without downloading it. I got the small 16Gig phone because I thought I wouldn't have to store any of my music in the device. If they make you download the songs you stream, it kinda defeats the purpose of storing music on the cloud.

I don't think so, at least that's not how it worked on my iPod.. Once I tapped on the Cloud icon next to the songs I wanted to listen, the songs began to download. So no, it doesn't really 'stream'... They do allow you to listen to the song you want while its downloading, but it will be stored once it finishes. You can erase the song after by swiping to the right.

I feel like iTunes goes against everything Apple stands for. I'm sure it wasn't the intention of Apple to have it that way, but it's true. Apple is all about simplicity and intuition. iTunes is the opposite of either of those. Over the years it's become a complex, WAY too feature-heavy application. Let me clarify that I don't mean that iTunes is slow or "bloated", just way, way too complex. If it was designed right in the first place, we shouldn't need a "clear explanation" on how it works. Apple's thought process is to make things simpler to use. Less is more and whatnot. Instead, all that happens with iTunes is more crap is tacked on, adding even more garbage to the already overpopulated and unorganized side bar.

Wow, quite a few snooty folks on here who have apparently never downloaded a free song. I say snooty because you are acting that way. And I assume you have never downloaded a song illegally because you are talking down to those who have.
A few people asked what will happen with songs they got via torrent or otherwise and you people look down your noses at them?? Take it easy big shots. There was a time when people used Napster freely and it wasn't looked at as being "illegal."
Basically, try to understand that even though you drive exactly the speed limit and have never downloaded a song from one of the various places, that doesn't mean that everyone else has been as perfect as you.

I have songs with very low bit rate - much less than 128K - that it simply uploaded.
On the other hand the music I have that "not eligible" is listed as "Protected AAC audio file".

So how do I unprotect it?

It appears that the threshold for songs is 96k. However, there is a work around for this. Simply create a higher bit rate version in iTunes (of course it won't sound any better because you aren't adding back any information ) but it will make it available for matching. If if matches, replace it with the 256k version.

I don't think so, at least that's not how it worked on my iPod.. Once I tapped on the Cloud icon next to the songs I wanted to listen, the songs began to download. So no, it doesn't really 'stream'... They do allow you to listen to the song you want while its downloading, but it will be stored once it finishes. You can erase the song after by swiping to the right.

I don't think this answers the question though as it was an article about the beta version, so if anyone has any better answers please let me know so I don't pay $25 and get disappointed

I just found this, and clipped it from a Huffington Post article: "Apple pointed out that this is not streaming, exactly, as each song downloads to your device when you push play. So while the playback is instantaneous, you are not streaming your music from the cloud, per se, but you are listening as the song places itself on your hard drive."

Another tip for managing your cloud music is this: If you have access to another computer, or VM install iTunes on it, enable match without any local songs. You can then see a clear version of your cloud library. This makes it very easy to delete duplicates, etc. If you don't have another machine you could even create another login and do it that way. Just make sure that you unauthorize it before you blow it away.

I don't think this answers the question though as it was an article about the beta version, so if anyone has any better answers please let me know so I don't pay $25 and get disappointed

So, what happens is it deletes your "Library" file on your device, not the actual songs. That is so you can have access to all of your playlists on the device instead of just the ones you synched. When your iCloud library is downloaded (the one the matches the playlists on your PC) you do not have to redownload songs that were already on the device.

I had a lot of worries about this prior to it going live. Most of it is misinformation. Basically I now have access to all of my songs and playlists on all of my devices including metadata. I'm happy and I did not expect to be.